THE BRADFORD EARTHQUAKE SUMMARY 1 the Democratic Audit
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The DemocraTic auDiT THE BRADFORD A E EARTHQUAKEU D M The lessons from Bradford West for election campaigning and O C D political engagement in Britain ❱ Lewis Baston R I A T I 2. ‘Biraderi’ (clan- T C ❱ Why Bradford? ❱ Key findings based loyalty) Following the March 2012 by-election The corrosion of the established has in the past offered parties an in Bradford West, which resulted in a political parties in Bradford West apparently easy mechanism to amass dramatic gain for George Galloway of block votes, but the price that parties 1. The recent political history of Respect, the Joseph Rowntree Reform (Labour and Conservative) have paid Bradford West has been marred by Trust commissioned a report from Lewis has been higher than they anticipated patronage, neglect, bad organisation Baston (of Democratic Audit) to analyse and ultimately led to disaster, and even electoral fraud. Both Labour what happened. The task was to explain particularly when combined with a and the Conservatives are implicated the result and its implications for political lack of local political organisation and in this state of affairs. Local politics parties and campaigners of all parties. discussion. in Bradford has been about mutual The full report is divided into four accommodation between elites of 3. Bradford Labour in particular needs sections – the context of the election, the each community (‘Asians’, city whites to absorb the lessons of the election campaign, the local elections of May 2012 and suburbanites) rather than real and change itself radically; the same and the overall meaning of the political diversity, and voters have found this may apply in other apparently ‘safe’ changes in Bradford. alienating. seats where local politics is weak. Bradford Town Hall illuminated by Patrice Warrener. Photograph by Joanna Stratton THE BRADFORD EARTHQUAKE SUMMARY 1 The DemocraTic auDiT There is a danger of a political West is a fascinating example of how the ballot boxes were opened on the night. vacuum developing in the city and messages can be propagated. The shock by-election result changed the elsewhere which may be filled by 10. National messages and campaigning political climate for the Bradford city fringe politics, despair or violence. language failed to connect with council elections in May 2012. Respect 4. As with some other by-elections in Bradford West electors’ bad gained five seats in Bradford, and which huge shifts of votes have taken experiences of mainstream politics. deprived Labour of the chance of taking place, voters in Bradford West do not overall control of the council. Despite the 11. Bradford itself suffers from a feel they have deserted their usual problems that Respect encountered in the pervasive sense of neglect and decline, party but that Labour has failed them summer and autumn of 2012, something hence the power of the symbolic issues and that there has been an option new had clearly taken place in local of the Westfield Hole and the Odeon available that better reflects the real politics, and that change might well have during the by-election campaign. values of the party. national significance. 12. International affairs, particularly Several explanations have been offered The local roots of Respect as they affect Muslims, did play for the revolution in Bradford politics, an unusually large part in the by- 5. Galloway could not have won without which Respect supporters quickly and election. This raises further questions a locally-generated upsurge of controversially called the ‘Bradford about identity politics and celebrity in political activity; the energy of the Spring’ by analogy with popular risings an age of plural media, and the way Respect campaign came largely from in the Arab word. After the election in which feelings of victimhood and local soil and was not a product of a there was considerable attention on resentment are cultivated, not only centrally-driven party strategy. the apparently new and innovative among young people and Muslims but techniques that the Respect campaign 6. That upsurge would probably not across the political spectrum. have happened had the local Labour used in the by-election, including its Party succeeded over the years in Overall observations superior command of IT and its ability to mobilise Muslim women and young first serving as a suitable channel 13. While the circumstances were unique people, who had previously seemed for political activity in Bradford it would be inappropriate to dismiss politically invisible in Bradford. More West, and second in running a Bradford West as an unimportant broadly, the result was seen as a selection process that commanded aberration. It indicates the repudiation by the electorate of party the confidence and support of party vulnerability of apparent strongholds politics in general, and Labour in members and the broader community. when a number of factors come particular, by many commentators. The together, and should give both major 7. The Bradford Respect campaign majority of Westminster insiders, who parties pause for thought about their itself compares with other protest had written off Galloway as a busted relationship with the core voters they movements such as Occupy in its flush, were appalled that he was elected. take for granted. self-conception and in its free-form Many accused Galloway of running an organisational style. 14. The result should not be dismissed as unscrupulous campaign that exploited an emotional spasm or a mistake by Muslim concerns and unfairly criticised Campaign techniques the electors of Bradford, but as a very his Labour opponent Imran Hussain. 8. In terms of campaigning methods clear repudiation of the local power However, a deeper look at by-elections, there was no revolution, merely a structure and the way that national the Bradford political background and positive rational ‘reboot’ conducted by politics is conducted. the politics of the Pakistani-British Respect of traditional techniques in community in Bradford makes it clear a modern setting. Bradford’s political ❱ that the Bradford West by-election was a parties have been held back in their Summary complex phenomenon, which crystallised development as campaigning entities Setting the scene several things that were ready to happen by non-ideological clan politics, and The Bradford West by-election of March in Bradford. Galloway was in the classic Respect’s innovations came as more 2012, in which George Galloway of the position of the rebel leader, summed up of a shock than they would have in Respect party triumphantly won a long- by words attributed to Ledru-Rollin in more engaged polities. The standard established Labour seat, was one of the 1848: ‘I am their leader. I must follow set of by-election campaign techniques most surprising and notable by-election them’; his campaign was a catalyst brought to Bradford by the main outcomes in recent British history. Few for a popular movement against a parties failed. observers among Westminster politicians particularly decrepit local political order 9. The interaction of social and and the media had a clue that Bradford in Bradford West. The culture of the traditional media can have a stronger West would be anything other than a campaign was participatory and perhaps effect than either alone; the effect routine Labour hold, and even among chaotically democratic and inclusive, of the television debate in the last Bradford Labour campaigners there was on the conscious model of the Occupy weekend of the campaign in Bradford little idea of what was to hit them until movement. THE BRADFORD EARTHQUAKE SUMMARY 2 The DemocraTic auDiT The corrosion of the The normal talented outsider. Party who had come up against the power of the established political political language labels themselves seemed machine before, to the Respect campaign. parties in Bradford West “ interchangeable to many of They took with them the ideas and energy of ‘fairness’ the power brokers. Politics in that had been unwelcome in Bradford Any adequate account of the ‘opportunity’ ‘hard Bradford, to many, seemed to West Labour. There were some innovative Bradford West by-election conform very closely to a far- aspects of the Respect campaign – has to start by addressing working families’ and left view of how mainstream particularly in the role of women and the failure of the main so on deployed by party politics works, and if it its use of social media – but most of it political parties in the all the main parties was true of Bradford, people was a sensible adaptation of widely used constituency. Without years rang very hollow in wondered, might it not be methods to the Bradford context, and of neglect, stemming from an true also at a national level? some – such as George Galloway’s bus accommodation with power Bradford West. tour in the final days – was evocative brokers to exploit the clan In the words of a voter to ” of old-time electioneering. Other than a voting solidarity of biraderi (a social a Labour activist in Bradford ‘we gave strong emphasis on international Muslim system of kinship that derives from rural you a big kick in the backside and we’re issues, the campaign centred around local Pakistan and Kashmir), there would not waiting to see how you respond to it.’ The issues such as the Westfield Hole and the have been fertile soil for Galloway in main parties, particularly Labour, have Odeon cinema and a broad left of centre Bradford. been put on notice that the way politics prospectus. has been practiced in Bradford West is The constituency Labour Party was unacceptable to the voters. While the On the surface, the Bradford West quiescent, even moribund, for years, party has been vigilant about campaign had seemed to be similar to with the MP neglectful and far left infiltration, it has most of the other by-elections in the ill and hardly any political ‘we gave [Labour] been slack about guarding 2010 parliament in safe Labour seats – a organisation, education or a big kick in the “ against infiltration by others routine canter to victory for the Labour debate going on within the backside and we’re who have no commitment candidate, helped by the unpopularity of party.